It doesn’t seem like that long ago that Chris Jericho declared he would save WWE.

He was sassy and saucy. Fans ate it up. Y2J was a hero.

Somewhere along the way, with WWE’s creative minds painting the “hero” in a different light, Jericho changed. He didn’t talk fast. There was no more snarly “NEVER ... EVER” coming out of his mouth.

His voice lowered noticeably into a monotone drone and, while keeping the volume turned up on his sadistic side, he managed to become even more devious. He’s one of WWE’s top villains, kept off the top pedestal by Randy Orton, but extremely effective nonetheless. Jericho’s transformation has been brilliant.

A natural with a microphone near his quivering lips, Jericho ripped on his former tag-team champion partner Edge on Monday Night RAW. With Edge sidelined by a real-life Achilles tendon injury, Jericho called his former ally fragile and a weak link. Jericho said his next partner would be “devious and cunning ... the opposite of Edge.” And for all these months, I thought The Rated R Superstar was about as cunning as they come.

While this column took a one-week hiatus (c’mon, did you really notice?), legendary goose-stepping villain Waldo Von Erich died. Born Wally Sieber in Toronto, he was 75. A few years ago, he told me: “I was the most hated wrestler. In Baltimore, they’d have 12 cops surround me. I had that smirk on my face. I had heat, killer heat.” He wasn’t a fan of today’s wrestling. “I could get into a ring and go 20 minutes without touching an opponent,” he said. “Now, I see all that crap on TV, it’s so damn boring.”

Around the ring

Bobby Lashley has signed with TNA ... Seth Green did a good job as host of RAW, winding up in the three-man tag main-event match ... Superstar Billy Graham has put his WWE Hall of Fame ring on sale on eBay.